This Birthday turned out 24 kids. It was an Army Birthday for my sons 6th.
His birthday is in Feb. so we always held it at our Churchs' fellowship hall. It is plenty big enough to set up several different game/activity stations. My sister made the invitations on the computer. They had an Army man on the front and invited all the children to come in Army soldier or Army Nurse costumes for a contest. I went to a local Army surplus store for some decorations I found fake bullet hole stickers, some foam army tanks, and a gray T-shirt with Army in black on it for me to wear. I also purchase him some camo pants. Most if not all the kids came in costume one of the cutest was an Army nurse with a white apron and white Nurses hat. The judging was pretty hard I did it by show of hand, but I would suggest letting the kids cast their vote. My sons friend is still mad because he did'nt vote for her, they're 9 now. I did'nt allow my son to be in the contest, the birthday child is always everybodys best friend, plus they get presents. I gave the boys some Army related toys, and the girl winner a pretty notebook and fancy pen, nothing too expensive. They also got first place ribbons, available at dollar stores. For games we used water guns to shoot G.I.Joes till they fell over, the children got three tries to throw a plastic grenade into an enemy tent,(a camouflage Barbie doll tent I totally lucked out on finding.), we also played a game where the children had to shoot at a target on a dry erase board with a water gun. For other activities I purchased gold poster board and string. I cut the poster board in dog tag shapes and the childrens name was written on them they were decorated with star stickers and markers. They had holes punched in them to put them around the childs neck with string. We even had numbers put under their name like real dog tags. For my sons I used his birth day month, and year. They turned out really good. The kids also got their faces painted at a stand ran by my more artistic than me sister, they got red cross crosses, globes, G.I. Joe, and camouflage. They really liked this part. I made a U.S. flag on poster board and the kids could write messages to our troops on it. I suggest having someone monitor this as ours wasn'nt and got a little messy. I had bought raffia and strung it up in the doorway leading into the big fellowship hall I added vines with leaves that i bougt from the floral dept. when the children came in they had to walk through vines and leaves, I also used the plants already in the room to decorate around the stations and block off doors that did'nt need to be opened. This gave the feel of being in the wild. For the cake I used two sets of GI Joe with planes, bard wire fence, and tanks etc. one was grey the other green. I put them on opposite sides with the fence separating them so it looked like they were having a war. This was very easy, I just used a sheet cake. I used plain Army green plates, and black napkins etc. to stick with the theme. The kids really enjoyed this party and it was the talk of his class for a long time. Friends are key when having a party with more than 1 activity. All mine were so willing to help, they usually have as much fun as the children.
